Zuikaku and Tsubaki were together sitting around a kotatsu in Zuikaku's room in the Sakura Empire building after she had collected her niece from school. Zuikaku had told her that her parents would be busy tonight, so she would be staying over at her aunt's house for a sleepover. The little girl didn't mind staying with her aunt; she idolized her just as much as her mother and father. Zuikaku's real reason for bringing her here, though, was because of Shoukaku and what her sister told her earlier today. The crane was still angry with what she was told, but she decided to listen to her sister and let Shoukaku find out the truth of what was going on between her husband and Enterprise. Tsubaki was there because Zuikaku didn't want her to see the potential fallout if it turned out John was having an affair with Enterprise. The little girl didn't deserve to have to deal with the consequences of their actions, if it was true.
"Auntie Zuikaku, what can we do?" The half-KANSEN asked her aunt. She was starting to get bored now just sitting around in her aunts room, and she wanted to do something; Tsubaki was getting restless just sitting around. Zuikaku then tried to think of something that could relieve the girl's boredom, something that was fun but also something that Shoukaku would be fine with her doing. After some thinking, she came up with an idea: "Let's go and practice some swordsmanship; I will give you a wooden sword to practice with. How does that sound, Tsubaki?" The KANSEN asked her niece. Tsubaki's eyes brightened, and she nodded very enthusiastically; she had seen her aunt practice with a katana and was mesmerized by her aunt's skill. She wanted to be as good as her aunt one day. Agreeing on what to do, the two of them headed down to the dojo to practice.
After a few minutes of walking from Zuikaku's room, Aunt and niece arrived at the dojo of the Sakura Empire. Looking around, they could see they were the only two people in here. "Good," Zuikaku thought to herself. "We are alone; nobody can bother us. This way, I can focus on teaching Tsubaki and get my mind off John and Enterprise." She hoped that spending time with her niece like this would help her get that issue out of her head. She didn't want to think about it; she would wait and see what Shoukaku said tomorrow. She would deal with the aftermath then. Walking over to the weapons on the shelf, Zuikaku picked up the smallest wooden sword she could find and handed it to her niece. "Are you ready to learn, Tsubaki?" she asked the little girl. Tsubaki, full of enthusiasm, replied, "Yes, Auntie!" From there, the two began.
Zuikaku started off by showing her a good stance and how to hold a katana, once Tsubaki got a reasonable grasp of it, she then began to teach her very basic movements, nothing difficult or dangerous as to upset her sister when she found out. However, after a while, the practice session became a fun game between the two, with Tsubaki playing the hero and her aunt the evil villain. "Stop right there, evil doer!" Tsubaki shouted. "I, the hero Tsubaki, will stop you here and now!" Zuikaku replied, getting into the spirit of things. "You will never defeat me, hero! I, Zuikaku, will defeat you and rule the world!" Tsubaki then very lightly poked her aunt with the wooden sword. Zuikaku then fell to the floor and acted as if she had been defeated by the "hero." "Curse you, hero! If it wasn't for you, I would have ruled the world!" Tsubaki then stood triumphantly while Zuikaku was on the floor. "The great Tsubaki has saved the day! Rejoice, everybody! You will no longer have to fear the dragon king!" After the two of them finished their game, Zuikaku sat up, and Tsubaki got her aunt in a hug. When they broke apart, the KANSEN could see the smile on the young girl's face. "That's a smile that I always want to protect," Zuikaku told herself. She just hoped that tomorrow, Tsubaki would still be smiling.
A voice then interrupted the warm moment between aunt and niece. "My, my, what do we have here?" said the voice. Both of them turned their heads to the source of the voice, only to see a brown-haired kitsune standing at the entrance of the dojo. It was a KANSEN who instilled fear in both friends and enemies alike. A KANSEN, who harboured a grudge against Zuikaku and an even greater one against Shoukaku. Her name was Akagi. Zuikaku, knowing that Akagi was in the same room as her niece, immediately went on guard. Shoukaku had told her that Akagi must stay away from Tsubaki as much as possible; this was one rule that Zuikaku had to follow at all times when she was with her niece.
"What do you want, Akagi? Why are you here?" The crane asked in a somewhat hostile tone. Zuikaku knew that the kitsune was still trying to pursue John, even after marrying his sister and becoming a father. Akagi refused to give up. This caused an already bad relationship between Shoukaku and Akagi to get even worse. Shoukaku wanted her to stay away from her daughter in case Akagi tried to harm her to get some revenge against her. The crane wouldn't put it past her. "Akagi could smell what seemed to be the Commander; I just wanted to say hello, Akagi didn't expect to see his offspring here." The kitsune replied. In truth, Akagi had no interest in harming Tsubaki; she knew if she did anything to hurt her, the Commander would never forgive her. So, instead, Akagi wanted to try to win the little girl over, but whenever she was with Zuikaku or especially Shoukaku, the kitsune never got the chance. She wanted to show the little girl that she could be a better wife for her father than her mother.
Zuikaku knew that Akagi wasn't just here to say a simple hello; the crane knew she was a very manipulative and dangerous shipgirl. She had to get Tsubaki out of here. When Zuikaki looked down to tell her niece that the two of them would be leaving, she wasn't there. Looking up, Zuikaku could see Tsubaki right in front of Akagi. "Tsubaki, get back here, please." She asked her niece, but the girl didn't listen. Looking at the half-KANSEN's face, the kitsune could tell the child wanted to speak to her. "What is it, Tsubaki? Do you have something to say to Akagi?" The little girl hesitated at first, but eventually she plucked up the courage to ask what she wanted. "Miss Akagi, can I touch one of your tails, please?" This request seemed strange to her, but she decided to fulfil it. She brought down one of her tails and let Tsubaki touch it. "Uwah, it's so fluffy." The young girl said as she was touching it. Akagi realizing the girl was enjoying this, carefully wrapped her tail around Tsubaki, and held the child in an embrace. This sent Tsubaki into complete bliss: "This is so warm and fluffy, I want to stay here forever." Is what the young girl said.
Zuikaku could see what was happening, and this immediately caused her to tense up. Tsubaki wasn't in any danger, but she could see the smug grin on the face of Akagi. "I know what you are trying to do, Akagi," she thought to herself. "It's not going to work. Tsubaki will never let you take the place of her mother." This is what the crane thought to herself. However, as if Akagi read her mind, she decided to ask Tsubaki a few questions. "What do you think of my tail, Tsubaki?" Akagi asked. "Akagi has more than just one, you know. Does your mother have tails like this? Akagi could do this every day if you wanted." This put Zuikaku really on edge. "Akagi, stop this right now!" she internally exclaimed. "You will never be her mother! Shoukaku won't let you! I won't let you!" She began to clench her fists as the grin of Akagi grew even wider. Zuikaku was dying to knock it off Akagi's face, but she realized that wouldn't look good in front of her niece and Shoukaku definitely wouldn't be happy with her if she started a fight with her daughter present.
Akagi eventually let the young girl go, which disappointed her. She wanted to stay wrapped up in Akagi's fluffy tail longer. Seeing the young girl's disappointment, Akagi spoke to her. "Fear not, Tsubaki. Akagi is more than happy to do this anytime. How about you let your father know? I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you told him this made you happy." This was the final straw for Zuikaku; she had enough of Akagi trying to manipulate her niece. "That's it, Akagi! You are going too far now! What you are doing stops right here!" Zuikaku said to Akagi while raising her voice. Tsubaki was confused as to why her aunt sounded angry and asked, "What's wrong, Auntie? Why are you mad at Miss Akagi?" Zuikaku told Tsubaki the truth of what she thought of Akagi. "She isn't a nice person, Tsubaki. Don't listen to what she is saying, come with me and let's go back to my room, please." Tsubaki didn't believe what her aunt was saying, but being around the kitsune was clearly upsetting her. Not wanting to make Zuikaku's mood worse, the young girl went over to her relative, and the two of them began to leave the dojo.
As Zuikaku left, she gave Akagi a very nasty look, Akagi didn't seem fazed by it. Normally, she would have lashed out at someone who dared act toward her like Zuikaku did; however, she knew that doing so would have been counterproductive to what she wanted. Akagi had begun her manipulation of the commander's daughter; she believed, over time, both cranes would be out of the picture, allowing her to have the commander to herself and Tsubaki would become her own surrogate daughter. Once that happened, she could dispose of both sisters as she saw fit. With all this in mind, Akagi had a very sinister grin as she was alone in the dojo.
Once Zuikaku and Tsubaki were back in her room, the KANSEN could see it was late. Tsubaki would need to be asleep soon, so she told the girl to get changed for bed. Once she changed, Zuikaku let her niece use her own bed so she could go to sleep. The two talked for a bit, but Tsubaki then fell asleep. Once her niece was asleep, Zuikaku was able to gather her thoughts. "What a day this has been," she thought. "First, John might be having an affair with Enterprise, and now Akagi is trying to take the place of Shoukaku as her mother. I will need to let Shoukaku know what's happened tomorrow. I hope that John has kept faithful, and my sister is only misunderstanding things." Zuikaku really did like John; in her eyes, he was the perfect partner for her sister. He was kind, understanding, brave, and willing to help any shipgirl regardless of what faction they belonged to. He was also an amazing father to Tsubaki and made Shoukaku happy. Zuikaku really did hope that John wasn't throwing all of that away. Shoukaku was never happy before they got married; when they did get married, her sister had the brightest smile she had ever seen. She didn't want Shoukaku to go back to how she was before.
Zuikaku then realized she should get to sleep herself, pulling out a futon and blanket from under her bed carefully and quietly so as not to wake up Tsubaki. The crane then got changed herself into sleepwear and lay down. As she drifted off to sleep, the crane was still hoping that everything would be right tomorrow and her sister's family wouldn't end up broken. Unknown to Zuikaku as she fell asleep, Shoukaku had found out what was going on with John and Enterprise, and it didn't involve any sort of relationship; it involved herself, or rather a different version of herself.
Outside the medical bay, Shoukaku was still in shock at what she was currently looking at – the META version of her sister, Zuikaku. She had so many questions she wanted answers to: "Who found her? Who did this? Where did she come from? What happened?" The questions were what the white-crane was asking everybody around her in rapid succession; it was too much for the KANSEN to take in. Seeing his wife in a state of panic, John spoke to her: "Shoukaku, listen to me. Calm down; I can't answer your questions when you are like this." Shoukaku then looked at her husband. He was right; her going around in a panic was helping no one. Shoukaku then closed her eyes and took deep breaths to calm herself down. After several minutes, the KANSEN felt her emotions were under better control; seeing that his wife was in a better state than she was earlier, John began to explain everything.
"Firstly, Shoukaku, remember that the base was receiving strange signals from a location?" John asked Shoukaku, to which she replied by nodding her head to show him she remembered. "That's where she was found; it was Bismarck and her team that found her when I had dispatched them to investigate." John left out the bit about Hipper wanting to destroy Zuikaku META; that would not have helped the situation currently going on. "Okay, John," said Shoukaku. "But what about the gunshot wound I see she has suffered? Was Bismarck or someone in her group responsible for that?" Shoukaku asked, noticing the dressing on the stomach of Zuikaku META; she wanted to know who injured this version of her sister like this. Vestal answered this question: "No, Shoukaku. I've had time to look at her wound; the damage caused to her doesn't fit any of the ammunition that the Azur Lane uses. Whoever it was that injured her, it couldn't have been anyone in Bismarck's team."
"If someone in Bismarck's team didn't shoot her, then who did?" wondered Shoukaku. That was something that she or anyone else couldn't figure out until Zuikaku META woke up. What everyone could guess is that this META must have come from a ruined future, as all the META's the Azur Lane had encountered had claimed they had come from the future, both friendly and hostile. "Could there be a version of me like this? A META who came from the future?" Shoukaku pondered; it was certainly within the realm of possibility. This version of her sister proved it. John then decided to break his wife's thoughts. "Shoukaku, I know you hate it that I hid this from you, believe me I am sorry, but I know how much Zuikaku means to you, she is just as important to you as Tsubaki. However, she can not be on the base until high command has finished with the inspection. If they see her here, the consequences will be disastrous for everyone."
Shoukaku then had an idea. "I understand, John," she said. "However, if you want to make it up to me, then let me go with her and Vestal. If this META is anything like my sister, then if she wakes up, she shouldn't attack anyone; if she does, I promise to do what is necessary. I would rather it be me who has this on my conscience than somebody else." Shoukaku explained. John wasn't comfortable with this idea, but he knew that he had damaged Shoukaku's trust with his recent actions, so by agreeing to this, he hoped he could repair some of that damage. Walking up to the KANSEN, John gently put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Okay, Shoukaku," he said. "I leave this to you, but promise me you will be careful. I don't want to lose the love of my life and our daughter to lose her mother." Shoukaku confidently replied, "I will, John. However, if something like this happens again, I want you to come to me first—no secrets from now on." John nodded to confirm he understood.
The four people suddenly heard groans, and when they realized where they were coming from, they knew whatever plans they had, they needed to change. Zuikaku META was starting to stir...